


Sewer Monsters of the Mind

by IBrokeThe4thWall



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Gen, IT reference, More Thriller Than Horror, Movie Night, Movie Night Gone Wrong - Freeform, Movie Reference, Second-Hand Horror - Freeform, Turtle Tots (TMNT), children with genre blindness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25026307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBrokeThe4thWall/pseuds/IBrokeThe4thWall
Summary: It's too stormy to go outside, so the turtle tots decide to have a movie marathon instead. When the boys accidentally watch the horror movie "IT", they start to believe there's a demon clown in the sewers. Armed with cookware and vivid imaginations, Raph, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey decide to fight back.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 50





	Sewer Monsters of the Mind

**Author's Note:**

> This has been a prompt from musekicker I've been sitting on for about... a year and a half now? Anyways, Raph is seven, Donnie and Leo are six, and Mikey is five. Enjoy!

Thunder and lightning filled the sky, and rain poured down on New York, overflowing the streets with puddles and causing the sewers to fill that much more from the excess. As a result, Splinter had refused to let his young sons leave the Lair that day. He encouraged them to play in the Lair and to have a movie marathon instead then proceeded to fall into a milk-and-cake coma to escape his energetic children. As evening fell, the boys put on their pajamas and set up for a sibling movie marathon.

Raph helped Mikey carry snacks and drinks into the living room while Donnie and Leo rifled through the DVDs. They had wanted to go old-school with their movie marathon that evening instead of using Netflix, but they also wanted to watch something that wasn’t a Lou Jitsu or Jupiter Jim film. _The_ _LEGO Ninjago_ _Movie_ , _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic The Movie_ , _Transformers_ from 2007, and _Scooby-Doo Monsters Unleashed_ were already piled up and ready to be viewed. The only movie left was the group pick, or “random draw” as it usually wound up being, that would determine what order they watched the other picks in, a mood-setter movie if one so pleased.

“Why’s that one in a CD case?” Leo asked.

He and Donnie held up a clear CD case that contained a black DVD. A red balloon and part of what looked like a clown covered part of the disc top. There was only one word visible on the cover: _IT_.

“Maybe the DVD case got water damage?” Donnie suggested as he lifted the case up for inspection.

“Do you guys want to watch it?” Raph asked.

“Yeah!” Mikey cheered. “It has a clown in it!”

With little more than a shrug, Donnie put the movie in the DVD player. Raph turned off the lights, then everyone got comfy in their bean bags as the movie began to play.

Mikey frowned as the music started and said, “The music’s kinda sad. Is this a sad movie?”

“I don’t know, Mikey,” Raph replied.

“Shhhh, you guys,” Leo hushed his brothers harshly, eyes glued to the screen. “The boy’s brother made him a boat.”

“Why’s he floating it in the rain?” Donnie asked and crossed his arms in skeptical confusion. “It’s going to end up in the sewers if he’s not careful…”

The turtle boys watched the scene play out as the human boy ran down the street chasing his paper boat. As Donnie had predicted, the handmade vessel was soon lost to the storm drains. The boy crouched by the sewer to see if he could find his boat when a white clown with red hair suddenly appeared on the screen. The older turtles were starting to get unnerved by the movie as the boy and clown spoke to each other, but Mikey was still delightedly oblivious to the nuances. The orange-loving turtle really liked clowns for reasons his brothers could not begin to fathom.

“Aw,” Mikey smiled happily. “That nice circus clown got Georgie his boat back!”

Donnie’s eyes narrowed as the scene progressed, saying, “The music got kinda siniste—AAAAHHH!!!!”

All of the boys shrieked in terror as Pennywise tore off Georgie’s arm. They screamed harder as the sewer clown proceeded to murder the human child before their very eyes. So much screaming. So many teeth. So much _blood_. Mikey quickly pulled himself into his shell, and Leo and Donnie crushed their baby brother between them to protect him and comfort each other. Raph hit the off button on the DVD player so hard that he knocked the whole set over before squishing his brothers close to his plastron.

“WHAT WAS THAT!?!?” Raph screeched.

“DEMON!” Leo shouted, pointing at the blank television screen from the safety of his big brother’s arms. “DEMON CLOWN!”

Mikey just barely pulled his head out of his shell. With tears in his eyes, he whispered, “D-do we… have one of those?”

“Of course not!” Donnie refuted, albeit with a shaky voice. “Why would you ask that?!”

“H-he _was_ in the sewers…” Leo stammered reluctantly. “And a bunch of freaky stuff has been happening lately.” Graffiti that neither he nor any of his brothers had created had been showing up on their walls recently, and there was a shadow that only ever appeared in the corner of their eyes before vanishing.

“What if there’s an evil clown down here?” Mikey asked in wide-eyed horror. “What if it wants to eat us?!”

The four brothers glanced around their home at the thought. The shadows were longer, much darker now than when the movie started. Was it because of the time of night, or was something hiding in the darkness? The sewer water that rushed around the Lair seemed ten times stronger than normal. Was that just from rain, or did something in the sewers plan on flooding them out of their home? High-pitched squealing and screeching reverberated through the tunnels. It was just the subway a few yards above them, right? Donnie’s lab equipment doing its thing? The cackling of demons hungry for juvenile turtles? Mikey couldn’t take it anymore and, with a whine, tucked back into his shell.

“We stay close to Dad!” Leo suggested. “He knows how to fight better than we do. He’ll keep that monster away!”

“No,” Raph stated as he put his brothers back on their feet. He marched in front of them like a drill instructor as he said, “Pops didn’t believe us about the Graffiti Monster or the Sewer Creeper, and he won’t listen to us about this either! We face this monster head-on and kick his butt before he can get us first.”

“But how do we fight him?!” Mikey sobbed. Leo pulled him into a side-hug. “He’ll bite our arms off!”

Donnie gulped nervously and lifted the DVD player from the ground. Even through his undeniable fear, Raph had not given the electronic more than a crack in the glass and some scratches. Good. The soft-shell did not like what he was about to suggest, but it was important if he wanted to keep his family safe.

As he set it back on the table that held up their television, Donatello said in a voice far more resolute than how he truly felt, “We gotta finish the movie. It’s the only way to find that monster’s weakness.”

The four brothers shared unwilling and frightened looks before reluctantly sitting down and restarting the movie. Many jump-scares, screams of terror, crying fits, and a small laugh here and there later, the movie ended. Raph clutched all three of his little brothers the entire time. When the credits began to roll, Donnie broke free of the embrace and immediately stopped the movie. He didn’t care if there was an end-credits scene or not. He felt like he was about to puke, and his other siblings didn’t look like they were faring much better.

With the knowledge of the monster’s weaknesses gleaned from the movie, Raph, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey armed themselves with cooking utensils and flashlights. The four young children then looked into their father’s room to see the gray rat mutant still asleep on his bed. Splinter would still be out for hours if the crumbs and milk stains were anything to go by. Fully equipped, the brothers lined up in front of the tunnel that led to the depths of their sewer home. Shadows grew longer, the dripping and flowing of water echoed louder, and the weight of their situation settled on the turtle mutants’ shoulders.

“O-okay, boys,” Raph stuttered. “Let’s get this cl-clown out of our sewers!”

“YEAH!” The three younger turtles cheered.

Raph, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey rushed into the sewer tunnels, flashlights blazing and cookware at the ready. Swiftly and silently as young children training to be ninja could, the boys traversed the dank tunnels. Algae and other slimy growth covered the walls, and, though the water rushing beside them was roaring in their ears, the sewers themselves were still. There was no trace of evil demon clowns anywhere. No red balloons, no paper boats, and any freaky voices from the pipes could be discounted as thunder from the storm above. However, they would stay on their guard to the very end.

Now, these four children might not be the best at determining movie genres based on what the DVDs look like, but they weren’t complete idiots. They knew how to more or less survive in horror movies. There was no way they wouldn’t win against some demon clown! And if they were just faking their bravado to make their siblings feel better, and thus bolstering their own wavering courage, no one had to know. The further away from their home they became, however, the less sure they all felt.

The sewer water was definitely running faster, the ceiling drippings were getting louder, the slime was thicker, the dark more suffocating by the second. Leo soon slipped in slime patch at some point and shrieked, scaring the rest of his brothers into screaming as well. Donnie whipped his flashlight to check on Leo, only see his twin sitting on his butt with gray-green _stuff_ on the bottom of his feet and pajama bottoms. He was looking into the water flowing past them.

“Hehe,” Leo laughed sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. “Sorry, guys. I, um, dropped my flashlight into the sewer river.”

“Really, Leo?!” Donnie asked as terror was replaced with frustration. “That’s just perfect!”

“Maybe we should just head back,” Raph suggested, helping Leo to his feet.

Now that one of them was down a flashlight, they were more likely to get into trouble. Donnie and Leo were about to agree when Mikey let out a terrified scream. All three of the older turtles saw the young box turtle pointing his spatula down a sewer tunnel a little way behind them. Leo rushed to his baby brother’s side and pulled Mikey behind him.

“What is it, Mikey?” Leo asked, holding his ladle out like a sword. “What did you see?”

“S-something’s down there!” Mikey whimpered, clutching to Leo’s pajama sleeve.

“Let’s shed some light on this situation,” Donnie suggested.

He and Raph pointed their flashlights down the tunnel in question. The cold yellow lights revealed a tall, lanky figure, hunched over with its back towards them. A moment after the being spotted, the figure slowly started to turn, unleashing a high-pitched giggle. The boys screamed, and the flashlights flickered out. Leo and Mikey shouted at their big brothers to fix their flashlights, fix them, FIX THEM! Donnie and Raph banged and smacked their flashlights and hoped that each flicker on would stay on. The youngest turtles kept screaming as the figure ambled towards them, getting closer and closer each time the lights failed.

Donnie and Raph shook their lights, and with a mighty smack to the concrete wall, Donnie finally got his tool working again. He immediately pointed it down the sewer tunnel. There was nothing there. There was something there before! What happened to the creature that had just been there? Where did it go?!

“Where is it?!” Raph asked, raising his own flashlight as a weapon. “Where’d it go?!”

“I’m right here.” A voice whispered behind them.

The four turtles slowly turned around. The empty tunnel slowly filled with hundreds of bubbles drifting around the boys and down all the tunnels. Raph and his brothers were soon surrounded by a floating, popping sea of air-filled water. A particularly large bubble eventually floated down until it was right in front of Raph’s face. He could see his and his brothers’ terror-stricken eyes staring back at them before it changed to someone else. Some _thing_ else.

“Did you miss me, boys?!”

In a flurry of movement, all of the bubbles around them exploded, soaking the turtles through their PJs and tearing screams from their bellies. A tall figure wrapped in a brown cloak and holding a massive hook loomed over Raph, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey. It unleashed a deranged laugh. All the boys were able to see was red and white before Donnie’s flashlight failed again. Driven by terror, Raph threw a rock right at the figure’s head.

“Get that clown!” Raph screamed, eyes squeezed tight.

“Wait, clown?” The figure asked in confusion before being swarmed by four terrified children with kitchen utensils. “Guys, stop!”

“You’re not getting any of our arms!” Mikey yelled as he smacked the creature with his spatula.

Leo followed his little brother’s lead and whipped at the creature’s arms with his ladle, shouting, “Leave our family alone, demon!”

“Stop it already!” The figure held Mikey and Leo back by their heads. What was wrong with these kids?!

“Don’t touch our little brothers, you evil jester!” Donnie snarled. He and Raph swept the creature’s odd legs out with their now useless flashlights. No one touched their little brothers and got away with it. Humans, mutants, or demon clowns!

“I. Said. STOP!” The creature roared. It raised its hook and swiped at the turtles. The four stumbled back to dodge the attack, but they fell right into a net trap. They soon found themselves dangling above flooding drainage pipe.“What is _wrong_ with you four?!” The creature demanded. “I’m not a _clown_! Or a demon! Or an evil jester! I’m a goldfish!”

The creature flipped a switch on the wall, turning on the sewer lights in their tunnel. The creature really was a goldfish—granted a giant mutated one—but the four turtles in the net didn’t see that. Their eyes were shut tight, a frightened tear or two caught in the corners that refused to fall even as they made small fear-filled noises. Raph mostly shielded his brothers from the goldfish mutant’s view, but the mutant saw and heard enough to know that something was wrong. Maybe scaring kids in the sewers during a thunderstorm was a bad idea, even if she had Splinter’s approval to do so…

 _Where is Dad, anyway?_ The mutant wondered as she slowly pulled the net to hang over the platform. “Guys, it’s me—Piebald. I was mutated after getting flushed away. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Donnie glared at the goldfish through tears of denial and fear. “Piebald getting mutated, huh? A likely story, demon clown! Which one of us do you plan on eating first?!”

Raph squeezed his brothers closer and whined. “Don’t challenge it like that!”

“I’m not _eating_ anyone, Donnie!” Piebald groaned. “I’m taking you four back home to warm up.”

“It’s gonna cook us first!” Mikey cried.

“How’d it know Donnie’s name?” Leo questioned, forcing both his baby brother and his twin behind him in Raph’s hold. “How’d you know my brother’s name?!”

“It _is_ the evil clown from the movie!” Donnie gasped. “We’re gonna die!”

“This is all my fault!” Raph wailed. “We should’ve stayed home!”

“Leave my brothers alone, and take me instead!” Leo demanded, a determined yet terrified glint in his eyes.

Piebald had become very concerned about how her little brothers (were they siblings?) were acting and, yet, was so incredibly _done_ with this drama. It was getting ridiculous with how they were behaving. Sure, she had wanted to scare them earlier, but this went well beyond what she had originally planned.

“For the last time, kid, I’m _not_ an evil clown demon,” Piebald stated, and she carefully lifted the turtle bundle out of the net trap and set them on the ground. “I’m not cooking, eating, or causing any kind of harm to _any_ of you. We’re going home to Splinter.” Once she saw the boys start to freak out again at the mention of their father, she knelt down to their level and ground out, “I’m. Not. Eating. Anyone! What’s got you four so focused on evil people-eating demon clowns?!”

Raph flinched at how close Piebald had gotten, but slowly asked, “You promise you’re not gonna eat us?” A moment after the goldfish nodded, the snapping turtle murmured, “We saw a really scary movie tonight, and the monster was an evil clown demon…”

“It lived in the sewers, scared a whole bunch of people, transformed into their fears, and ate kids!” Mikey spoke up from behind Raph’s shell where his older brothers had tried to hide him.

“It knew their names before they said them,” Donnie admitted.

“We thought we might have one since a whole bunch of scary stuff was happening in our home,” Leo said, “so we went out to get it before it could get us. And that’s why we thought it was you.”

“Okay, I admit to living in the sewers and scaring you guys a _few_ times,” Piebald said slowly, “but I don’t eat people, Mikey, especially kids.” Slowly, so she didn’t freak them out more, she gave Mikey’s head a fond rub. “Donnie, I know your names and who you are because we would play Frisbee hockey all the time before I got flushed. There aren’t any evil monsters living in these sewers, Leo. I’ve gone down enough of these tunnels to know. And it was just a movie, Raph.” Piebald gave the tunnel behind the turtles an annoyed scowl. “A very scary movie that Dad either shouldn’t have let you see or should’ve hidden better.” Piebald paused in thought of what the turtles had said and asked, “Why would you guys be afraid of _me_ exactly if you were hunting for an evil clown?”

Raph, Donnie, Leo, and Mikey looked at each other guiltily. This really wasn’t an evil demon clown that could transform into their worst fears. It… she was Piebald. Piebald! One of their favorite playmates before the incident. The goldfish they had accidentally flushed away a year ago and lied to their father about, replacing her with a googly-eyed rock to stay out of trouble. Mikey had said that Piebald looked so angry with them when she was sucked down the drain pipe that they were afraid that she… that she…

“We were afraid that you would hate us forever if you ever came home,” Mikey sniffed.

“Not a chance I could ever hate you guys,” Piebald stated simply. “Angry maybe, sad sure, but I’m mostly just happy to be home.”

“Piebald…?” Raph said, stepping closer to the mutant goldfish.

“Yeah, kid?” Piebald said.

She suddenly found herself being embraced by four sobbing turtle children, who all shouted, “WE MISSED YOU!!!!”

Piebald smiled at her little brothers and hugged them close. “I missed you turds, too.”

As the terror and adrenaline slowly left their systems, the turtle mutants longed to go home and sleep. They knew, however, that home meant an angry father who they’d have to tell the truth to and nightmares about murderous sewer clowns that didn’t exist anywhere outside their minds. But Piebald was back, and that made things okay. They trusted her more than they believed in their fears. She carried them home, not minding in the slightest as they cried themselves to sleep in her arms.

As Piebald entered the Lair, Splinter exited his room. It was time for his sons to learn their lesson about lying to him. However, when he saw how carefully his daughter was carrying the turtles, he assumed the worst.

“What happened?!” Splinter yelped, dashing to his children’s side.

“They watched a horror movie tonight and thought there was a people-eating demon clown running around in the sewers,” Piebald explained as she carried the boys to the living room. “I freaked them out worse, and now they’re asleep. Leo needs new pajamas.” She gave Splinter the stink eye. “And you need to hide your horror movies better, Dad.”

“‘People-eating demon clown’?” Splinter wondered. He went to the DVD player and ejected the disc. Examining the movie carefully, Splinter stated, “I… don’t remember ever buying _or_ renting this movie…. It must’ve been in the player when Purple found it.”

With a shrug, Splinter put the disc back into the CD case and helped Piebald settle the boys into a turtle sleep pile on the bean bag chairs after swapping out Leo’s grimy sleepwear for a clean set of blue pajamas. He fully planned on lecturing them in the morning about always telling him the truth and to not wander around in the sewers so recklessly, but for now he would let them sleep. He watched Piebald flop down beside his sons. Splinter’s family was back together for the night, and the rat-dad was content with that.

He drifted off to sleep himself to the sounds of the sewers. The shadows didn’t loom. The water rushed by as it normally did, if a little higher from the dying thunderstorm on the surface. The subway rattled and echoed noisily as usual. However, it did sound a bit like distant laughter tonight, but that was probably just a tired father’s imagination.

**Author's Note:**

> And this is how I think "Flushed, but Never Forgotten" would've gone if the turtles were all little kids... Except they wouldn't have seen IT. 
> 
> So, where did the DVD come from? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Was that really a subway at the end or demon laughter? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Should I give you the answers or let you come to your own conclusions? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Have a nice day, y'all!


End file.
